Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Future funding for the Canal &amp; River Trust

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Today, I am notifying Parliament of our intention to provide additional grant funding from 2027 to the Canal & River Trust. The Trust is a charity responsible for 2,000 miles of waterways and associated historic industrial infrastructure in England and Wales. The Trust is responsible for maintaining navigability and safety of its waterways including reservoirs, embankments and other infrastructure.An open and well-maintained Canal & River Trust inland waterways network delivers broad benefits aligned to our nation’s priorities. In January 2023 the government published our ambitious Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP). The government recognises that the Canal & River Trust has an important role to play in contributing to the EIP, alongside other government priorities.Since it was first created in 2012, as a private charity independent of government, we have been very clear that the Trust would have to increasingly move towards alternative sources of funding. We have been discussing this with the charity for some time and have been offering support on how it can increase income from other sources, alongside continued government funding, which countless charities across the country do very effectively.Whilst there is no obligation for government to fund the Canal & River Trust beyond 2027 I can confirm that, subject to certain conditions being met, government will offer a new long term funding package of over £400 million to the Trust. To date we have awarded them £550 million funding and, with this further commitment, are now supporting the Trust with a further total £590 million between now and 2037 – a significant sum of money and a sign of the importance that we place on our inland waterways.I look forward to continued enjoyment of our local waterways.

Department for Education

Update on Early Years

Claire Coutinho: My Noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System and Student Finance (Baroness Barran), has made the following statement.Today I am confirming the distribution of £204m of additional funding for the early years entitlements in 2023-24 via a new Early Years Supplementary Grant (EYSG); and the hourly funding rates that each local authority will therefore receive from September 2023.At the 2023 Spring Budget the Chancellor announced an increase to the funding for the existing early years entitlements for two, three and four year-olds of £204 million from this September, and £288 million in 2024-25. This is for local authorities to increase the rates paid to childcare providers.For 2023-24, the additional £204 million will be distributed to local authorities through a new standalone top-up grant called the Early Years Supplementary Grant (EYSG). Given that the funding increase is coming in mid-way through the financial year, providing this funding through a stand-alone grant will help reduce complexity and support local authorities to pass the additional funding on to providers from September in a timely manner.This additional funding through the EYSG, coming on top of local authorities’ existing allocations, will effectively increase average funding rates by 32% for the current 2-year-old entitlement, and 6.3% for the 3-and-4-year-old entitlements, from September.The EYSG rate for 2-year-olds is, on average, £1.95 per hour – this means that the national average 2-year-old funding that local authorities will receive will increase from the current £6 per hour to an £7.95.The EYSG rate for 3- and 4-year-olds is, on average, 33 pence per hour – similarly, the national average 3- and 4-year-old hourly rate received by local authorities will increase from £5.29 to £5.62. The minimum funding floor for the 3- and 4-year-old funding hourly rate will increase from £4.87 to £5.20. All local authorities will see at least a 1% increase, and up to a maximum of 10%.We will also shortly be launching a consultation on our proposed approach to distributing the funding for the new entitlements for working parents of children aged 9 months to 2 years, to local authorities in 2024-25, along with the accompanying local rules for local authorities to follow when passing on this funding to providers. I will update the house accordingly.[Alongside this additional funding, I am also announcing that £12m of funding will be made available to local authorities this financial year, to support them prepare to roll out the new early years entitlements. We will announce further information, including the allocations methodology being used, in the autumn.]Separately, the Government has today set plans in motion to deliver its ambition for all parents of primary school aged children to access childcare in their local area between 8am and 6pm. 16 local authorities, from Barnsley to Wiltshire, have been selected to work alongside the Government to develop plans for this universal provision, with some of these areas expected to be amongst the first to start delivery, as soon as summer 2024.Further details and guidance on the Early Years Supplementary Grant and funding rates will be published on GOV.UK.

Ministry of Justice

Progress report on the implementation of the Rape Review Action Plan, Operation Soteria National Operating Model, SSVS – remote observation

Alex Chalk: My Hon Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Suella Braverman) and I are pleased to announce that the government is today publishing a progress report two years on from the publication of the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan. This is the fourth six-monthly progress report on implementation, and demonstrates the Government’s ongoing commitment to be transparent and accountable to the public on our progress in delivering the ambitions of the Rape Review.The data in the report provides clear evidence of progress to drive up police referrals, charge rates, and Crown Court receipts. We are making sustained progress towards the Rape Review’s ambition to return volumes of cases being referred to the police, charged by the CPS, and going to court, to at least 2016 levels. It is well documented that the charge rate and volume of convictions for adult rape dropped drastically after 2016 due to a range of factors, not least a lack of join-up across the system, and the criminal justice system overcorrecting following a small number of high-profile disclosure failures. A return to 2016 levels is ambitious, marking a year where adult rape convictions were 30% higher than in 2010. The latest data shows that we have hit two of our ambitions already, and remain on track to hit the other: Adult rape cases referred by the police to the CPS (for either early advice or a charging decision) continue to increase, with 1,079 total police referrals in the fourth quarter of 2022, exceeding our ambition of 766 and up by 134% from the quarterly average in 2019, when the Rape Review was commissioned.Adult rape cases charged by the CPS have been increasing, with 472 suspects charged between October and December 2022, close to our ambition of 538 and up by 93% from the quarterly average in 2019.The number of adult rape Crown Court receipts continued to increase in the first quarter of 2023 with 605 Crown Court receipts, exceeding our ambition of 553. It is also up by 162% from the quarterly average in 2019. And despite the barristers’ strike impacting court action in 2022, adult rape prosecutions continue to rise, up 44% in the last calendar year almost double what was achieved during 2019, and higher than the volume achieved in 2010. Key achievements over the last six months include: Introducing the landmark Victims and Prisoners Bill to Parliament in March, bringing forward measures to better serve victims and the public.Legislating through the Victims and Prisoners Bill to ensure requests for third party material, such as therapy notes, or medical, educational and social service records are necessary and proportionate.Recruiting 20,000 additional police officers, having brought in a net increase of 20,951 officers across England and Wales since the launch of the recruitment campaign in 2019, ensuring the police have the resources available to dedicate capacity to priority issues such as rape.A second round of government funded procurement (with a value of £4.2m) of technical capability to retrieve digital evidence (when it is the least intrusive means to do so) from mobile phones at a time and place convenient to the victim has been completed and is being deployed to forces.The Law Commission publishing their consultation into the use of evidence in trials involving sexual offences. Today we are also announcing that through the Specialist Sexual Violence Support project, we will ensure that any adult rape victim at Newcastle, Leeds or Snaresbrook Crown Court who needs it has the option to remotely observe the sentencing hearing for their case, through video link, subject to judicial agreement. This will give victims the opportunity to see justice done without the distressing experience of attending court alongside the defendant's family or supporters. This builds on other work to improve the victim experience at court, including legislation to permit the remote observation of sentencing hearings and allowing victims to pre-record their evidence and spare them the trauma of attending court in-person. Operation Soteria is an ambitious joint Home Office and CPS programme to transform the way that rape investigations and prosecutions are handled and progressed, with a focus on investigating the suspect rather than the victim. Through close collaboration between frontline policing, prosecutors and academics, the programme has developed new National Operating Models for the investigation and prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences. All police forces in England and Wales have committed to implement this new approach and will be supported to do so by the Home Office, the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council who are establishing a Joint Unit, to oversee implementation and monitor progress. In addition, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue have been commissioned to conduct a thematic inspection on forces’ implementation of the Model.While strong progress has been made, we made clear in our last Progress Report that the Rape Review Action Plan is a start and must remain dynamic and continue responding to the challenges that victims face. We recognise there is still more to do, which is why we are setting out our action plan until December 2024, ensuring we continue to deliver improvements to the criminal justice system’s response to rape.These publications form part of the Government’s ambition to ensure access to justice, improve the experience of victims and make our society safer for everyone.